


Run This Town

by MercyBuckets



Series: Run This Town [1]
Category: Dark Matter (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Criminals, Alternate Universe - Mob, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, BAMF Women, Because I Wanted To That's Why, Canon Character of Color, Canon-Typical Violence, Casual Violence, Dubious Morality, F/M, Gen, Leadership, Multi, OT3, Past Child Abuse, Scheming, Science Fiction, Sexism, Swearing, Team as Family, Well OT3 Ish, Why Did I Write This?, Women Being Awesome, idk - Freeform, lots of swearing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-23
Updated: 2016-10-23
Packaged: 2018-08-24 05:18:38
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8358811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MercyBuckets/pseuds/MercyBuckets
Summary: Five years ago, a girl named Rebecca disappeared from a lab in the city.Two years ago, a famous crime lord was murdered in a coup led by three teenagers.Now, 17-year-old Portia Lin rules the local criminal underworld with an iron fist, and Marcus and Ryo watch her back. AKA The teenage criminal AU that literally no one asked for.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Okay so I got this idea at some point and it just wouldn't leave me alone. I plan on writing more in the !verse as there's a lot that I haven't covered here. 
> 
> Unbetaed so all mistakes are my own. On that note, if you for some reason feel an urge to beta read for me, get in touch :)
> 
> Title from "Run This Town" by Jay-Z and Kanye West (there may be a day where I stop using songs for titles but it not this day)
> 
> Mercy

Assassination attempt number 3 of the day comes when Portia is in the bath. She takes care of it quickly but not before he gets a lucky hit, slicing the meat of her arm deep enough that anyone else would need stitches. As she stands dripping and naked on her floor, she feels something inside of her snap.

“I killed another in the hall,” says Ryo.

“I fucking hate assassins,” says Marcus.

“Will someone get me a goddamn towel,” says Portia.

Her arm throbs but it’s already beginning to scab over. Marcus throws her a fluffy towel barely pausing to appreciate her glistening curves.

“If you’re done ogling my ass,” says Portia snidely, “We have a rebellion to crush.”

“I can multitask,” says Marcus.

“The sooner we take care of this, the sooner you get back to your bedroom,” says Ryo somehow making the statement both bland and filthy as only he can.

“Fuck you,” says Marcus without any heat to it.

“Boys,” says Portia. “The matter at hand.”

“I say we kill them all,” says Marcus.

“You say that every time,” says Portia.

“And maybe if you listened,” says Marcus, “There wouldn’t be another time.”

“There’s always rebellion,” disagrees Ryo quietly.

“Do we even know who it is this time?” asks Portia.

“It’s probably Arax,” says Marcus. “I hate that fucker.”

Portia rolls her eyes.

* * *

 

Portia surveys her inner circle. They’re arranged loosely around a long table. Das, her hacker, is across from her, blue hair covering most of her face as she fiddles with some piece of wiring. Next to Das is her adopted brother Kal, a hitter who came as a package deal with his brilliant sister, who is staring stoically ahead with his arms crossed. Moss, their latest rich kid runaway, is next to the siblings looking vaguely bored in a way that means he’s thinking. Across from him is Andra, Portia’s spy master, and Nyx, a psychic former assassin who came to them looking for revenge on her brother’s murderers.

“Okay,” she says and everyone looks to her. “We’re here to talk about taking care of the rats in our house.”

“Does that mean what I think it means?” Moss asks Nyx who huffs quietly.

“Dumbass,” says Marcus.

Portia clears her throat meaningfully but she’s smiling. If her court ever saw her like this, they probably wouldn’t even recognize her.

“I have good news and bad news Portia,” says Andra. “Which would you like to hear first?”

“Surprise me,” says Portia.

“The good news is that we have traced back this series of assassination attempts to one person.”

“Please make my fucking day and tell me it’s Arax,” says Marcus.

Kal snorts and Das looks up from her fiddling.

“No,” says Andra simply. “Thanks to Das we were able to determine that the assassins were hired by Wexler who I’m sure you all remember.”

Portia remembers him alright. After taking of his two fingers for groping her, she had threatened to cut off his dick if he ever came near her again.

“Not as good as Arax but I’m still going to enjoy this,” says Marcus patting his knife.

“What’s the bad news?” asks Ryo.

“The bad news is that the money come from someone else,” says Andra. “Someone with deep pockets who wants Portia dead.”

‘Rook,’ thinks Portia. It’s irrational, there are any number of rich businessmen and women who have reason to want her dead, but she can’t help the shiver all the same. Marcus slips a hand to the small of her back under the table.

“Let’s kill the fucker and get on with our lives,” says Portia because what else is there left to say.

* * *

 

As it turns out, that’s easier said than done.

“I take it back,” says Marcus. “This asshole is worse than Arax.”

They’re pinned down behind a pile of storage crates. Andra is unconscious and Moss is bleeding from a graze on his thigh but they are otherwise unharmed.

Ryo is fighting Cain, former security emphasis on the _former_ , and Portia, who should be wiping the floor with Wexler, is barely holding her own.

“Is that even possible?” says Moss weakly.

“Keep pressure on that,” says Kal gesturing to Moss’ leg. “She needs back up.”

“She shouldn’t,” says Marcus.

“But she does,” says Kal. “This shit is rotten all the way down.”

A reckless dash for cover and a few well-placed bullets take care of the goons who had them trapped but by the time they make it to Ryo who is pulling his sword out of Cain’s chest, Portia and Wexler are gone.

“Stay here,” Ryo orders Moss. “Protect Andra. We’ll be back for you.”

“Help her,” says Moss, his voice thick with pain. “Don’t worry about me.”

Their comms crackle to life.

“East corridor, go now,” shrieks Das not bothering to hide her panic.

* * *

 

“Not so high and mighty now are you bitch,” says Wexler.

His hands are tight around Portia’s neck and she hates herself for giving in to panic just a little bit and struggling.

“Fuck off,” she says kicking weakly.

“Without your strength there’s nothing special about you,” he says tightening his grip so that spots dance in her vision. “Except maybe your looks.”

“You’re a sick bastard Wexler and I’m going to enjoy killing you,” she wheezes.

He backhands her and she reels, black encroaching threateningly into her sight. Something is very wrong. When she comes back, he’s got an arm around her throat and a gun pressed into her side.

“I’ll kill her if you come a step closer,” he shouts jabbing the gun into her ribs even harder.

“You’re going to die screaming,” says Marcus with as much loathing as she’s ever heard.

She didn’t see them enter, but there they are. Marcus, Ryo and Kal, armed to the teeth and looking murderous. She almost passes out then and there.

“Back off,” snarls Wexler. “I’ll do it.”

“You’ll beg for mercy when we’re done with you,” says Ryo.

Portia feels Wexler hesitate for a bare second and that’s all she needs. She snatches the palm sized knife from her hip sheath and stabs Wexler in the throat. She feels more than hears the thunderous crack of a gunshot and the next thing she knows, she’s on the ground.

“Are you okay?” she tries to ask when Kal and Marcus come into her view but all that comes out is a wet moan.

“Oh fuck, that looks really bad,” says Marcus.

“Portia,” says Kal too loudly. “Can you move your feet?”

Portis is about to ask him why he’s yelling at her, when her entire side suddenly feels like it’s gone up in flames. She thinks she screams.

“Ryo, fuck. We need you over here. She’s hurting herself.”

“We have you,” she can’t tell who’s saying it but there are gentle hands on her forehead.

“Tell me that fucker is dead.”

That’s Marcus.

“Drowned in his own blood,” she hears Ryo say. “It’s an ugly way to die.”

“Good,” says Marcus.

She agrees and she tries to say so but she passes out before she can.

* * *

 

She wakes up in a soft bed with light trickling in through the barred windows above her. She is not in her own room.

“Where am I?” she demands.

“Andra’s room,” says someone next to her.

She tries to sit up but pain and gentle hands keep her down.

“What do you remember?”

It’s Ryo and she relaxes instantly.

“Fighting Wexler,” she says. “He had something that made me weak.”

Ryo must see how that makes her feel on her face because he sits down on the bed, close but not quite touching her.

“He’s dead. You stabbed him,” he tells her.

“Good,” says Portia.

“He also shot you,” adds Ryo.

“I hope he suffered,” she snaps. “Why do I still hurt?”

“Andra and Das say that it’s something to do with the device that Wexler had,” says Ryo slowly like he doesn’t want to spook her.

“The device that Rook gave him,” she finishes.

“Yes,” says Ryo.

She loves that about him. He doesn’t try to dissuade her or offer false assurances. In many ways, they are alike. Both products of their fucked up childhoods. Both shaped by the adults in their lives into a weapon rather than a person. Both betrayed by their own house.

Portia takes a deep breath. Rook can wait, even if he does make her heart race in badly concealed panic. She has a criminal empire to whip into shape.

“How long was I out?” she asks.

“Almost 3 days,” says Ryo moving so that she can get out of the bed.

Getting up feels like the most painful thing she’s ever done but she manages with only tight whimpers which Ryo chooses not to comment on.

“Can––can you do my hair?” she asks him.

She’s dreading getting into her tight leather pants but she knows she won’t be able to do her hair on her own and Das will only try to talk Portia out of getting up if she’s called. Ryo nods collecting the things he’ll need as she gets dressed.

Getting dressed is almost as painful as getting up was and by the time she’s finished, she has to sit down on the bed. There’s a thin sheen of sweat all over her body.

“Brought your make up,” says Ryo returning to sit next to her.

“Love you,” she says without looking at him.

* * *

 

“I heard that she was in a coma,” she hears someone say before she opens the doors. She resists the urge to just stab them.

“As you can see,” she says loudly, striding in like the motion doesn’t make her feel sick with pain. “That is simply untrue.”

She’s rewarded by a hasty apology which trails off under Ryo’s icy gaze.

“Por––Two, it’s good to see you back. We feared for your life,” says Arax.

God she hates that slimy bastard.

“Youth has its advantages. I am glad to see that my court has remained loyal in my absence,” says Portia smiling with all of her teeth.

She stares him down for a beat too long to let him know that she is not about to let his little name thing slip. “Portia,” is what her inner circle calls her, to the rest of them, she’s only “Two.” Arax may have bribed her name out of some poor idiot who’s dead in an alley now but she’ll be damned if he throws it around in front of her like that.

“This piece of shit bothering you, Boss?” asks Marcus appearing beside her.

He is obviously surprised to see her, but he hides it well enough behind a wolfish grin.

“Oh look who it is,” says Arax. “The guard dog.”

Portia whips around and punches him in the face.

He goes down like a stone and it’s only Ryo’s quick thinking and covert support that keeps her from joining him on the floor. She buys herself time to get the pain back under control by staring at the unconscious man at her feet as if disgusted. It’s not very hard.

When she’s sure that she can speak without a trace of pain in her voice, she looks up. The room is dead silent.

She looks up at the wall scanning the pieces of fabric nailed there. The previous guy had kept severed hands there but Portia prefers more sanitary trophies. Finding a scrap of Wexler’s jacket, she looks at it hard and allows all of her anger to come flooding back, lending her strength.

“You all know how traitors are dealt with,” she says with just the right amount of simmering rage. “You can stand with me or die. No more comments, no more whispers. You wanna be in charge? Fucking kill me and take the throne.”

No one says a word.

“That was incredibly hot,” says Marcus.

“Long live the queen,” says Ryo.


End file.
